What exactly is a Christian Ashram and how can a priest run one?

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It seems to involve eastern spirituality and I wonder what exactly goes on in an ashram. I wonder how a Catholic priest can be the leader/guru/ Swamy Saranananda of one. How are the meditation techniques used in harmony with Catholic spirituality?

Thank you in advance for your response.
 
Abba said:
It seems to involve eastern spirituality and I wonder what exactly goes on in an ashram. I wonder how a Catholic priest can be the leader/guru/ Swamy Saranananda of one. How are the meditation techniques used in harmony with Catholic spirituality?

Thank you in advance for your response.
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While I would never go to such s facility, it sounds to me like a faceful of syncretistic hooey.

Our LORD taught us to teach and baptize the nations; not to take on their religious practices.

ICXC NIKA
 
Abba said:
It seems to involve eastern spirituality and I wonder what exactly goes on in an ashram. I wonder how a Catholic priest can be the leader/guru/ Swamy Saranananda of one. How are the meditation techniques used in harmony with Catholic spirituality?

Thank you in advance for your response.
Click to expand...
The word ashram means monastery. The word guru means teacher. Of course, these are eastern words of non-Christian origin, and using them usually indicates that you are interested in interreligious dialogue. A Catholic priest can be a teacher (guru) in a monastery (ashram) with the approval of his bishop, or abbot if he is a member of a monastic order.

One goal that interreligious dialogue seeks to find is common ground between different faith traditions. Common ground should not be equated with syncretism, but that is always a possibility. Meditation techniques such as becoming still and focusing the mind can be quite harmonious with Catholic spirituality.

However, if you are put off by the thought of interreligious dialogue and learning from other faiths, then you are free to ignore all of that. If you are worried about syncretism and a potential watering down of the Faith, then you can issue a warning, as many on these forums do.
 
christofirst said:
The word ashram means monastery. The word guru means teacher. Of course, these are eastern words of non-Christian origin, and using them usually indicates that you are interested in interreligious dialogue. A Catholic priest can be a teacher (guru) in a monastery (ashram) with the approval of his bishop, or abbot if he is a member of a monastic order.

One goal that interreligious dialogue seeks to find is common ground between different faith traditions. Common ground should not be equated with syncretism, but that is always a possibility. Meditation techniques such as becoming still and focusing the mind can be quite harmonious with Catholic spirituality.

However, if you are put off by the thought of interreligious dialogue and learning from other faiths, then you are free to ignore all of that. If you are worried about syncretism and a potential watering down of the Faith, then you can issue a warning, as many on these forums do.
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I would imagine there is far less common ground, and more potential for syncretism, than is commonly thought; however, I do respect other religions and probably should not have used the word “hooey.” Mea culpa.

I have zero interest in quieting my mind, and Death will still me against my will soon enough. Therefore I choose to ignore everything connected with these eastern disciplines. Anybody who disagrees can go for it.

ICXC NIKA
 
Abba said:
It seems to involve eastern spirituality and I wonder what exactly goes on in an ashram. I wonder how a Catholic priest can be the leader/guru/ Swamy Saranananda of one. How are the meditation techniques used in harmony with Catholic spirituality?

Thank you in advance for your response.
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A catholic priest could not be the leader of one any more than he could be the leader of a mosque, coven or synagogue.
 
Hoosier_Daddy said:
A catholic priest could not be the leader of one any more than he could be the leader of a mosque, coven or synagogue.
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The Catholic priests who served at Shantivanam ashram in India would disagree with you.
 
Maybe it’s just me but I’m wondering why this thread is in the EC sub-forum. :confused:
 
Abba said:
I actually started it in Evangelization Forum and it was recommend that I start it here. 🤷
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Perhaps that might have been an attempt at humor. Eastern (as in eastern religions) and Catholicism.

But that is not what “Eastern Catholicism” is…😃
 
Technically, The Ashram is under the Syro-Malankara Catholic Church.
 
Many of these ashrams are associated with the Syro-Malabar/Malankara Church. That is why he was told to post here.

Also, Roman, if you think it is “hooey,” without knowing a single thing about the subject, maybe you should keep silent on the matter.
 
The Ashrams were founded between 1937 and 1958. A few (I think 1 maybe 2) are Traditional and honor the Syriac Tradition, but the majority are “inculturalized/Indianized.”
 
SyroMalankara said:
The Ashrams were founded between 1937 and 1958. A few (I think 1 maybe 2) are Traditional and honor the Syriac Tradition, but the majority are “inculturalized/Indianized.”
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Thanks for the clarification. Is this the type of thing the late Dom Bede Griffiths was involved in?
 
Yes, I find Fr. Bede’s work a mixed bag. While he was faithful to Tradition, translated much of the Syriac and Malayalam work into English, and put together much needed texts, he was also very much into this “indianization” movement - which, in my opinion, was not authentically Indian, but more a European attempt to imitate their impressions of Hindu religious customs.
 
It seems to me as a syncretization of Christianity with eastern religions. I don’t think that Christianity needs to be ‘enriched’ and I do not see sacred scripture as a visual symbol like any other and that through by combining it with eastern religions one can go beyond the limitations of Christianity. I am very surprised that the people who manage the Benedictine monasteries let this monk go so far and for as long as he did.

Fr. Bede Griffiths
youtube.com/watch?v=jWG-muR9eRI&feature=related

This is all wrong and I hope it has been stopped.

You see, God really does exists, and when we grow spiritually He takes part. We do not grow spiritually through our own inner powers etc… it is through a relationship with Our Lord.
 
Abba said:
It seems to me as a syncretization of Christianity with eastern religions. I don’t think that Christianity needs to be ‘enriched’ and I do not see sacred scripture as a visual symbol like any other and that through by combining it with eastern religions one can go beyond the limitations of Christianity. I am very surprised that the people who manage the Benedictine monasteries let this monk go so far and for as long as he did.

Fr. Bede Griffiths
youtube.com/watch?v=jWG-muR9eRI&feature=related

This is all wrong and I hope it has been stopped.

You see, God really does exists, and when we grow spiritually He takes part. We do not grow spiritually through our own inner powers etc… it is through a relationship with Our Lord.
Click to expand...
It’s an uneasy balance. It seems overboard to a Latin but he was a Latin transferred to the Malankara Syriac Church. As a Malankara, the saffron robes and indianisms don’t bother me so much, but sometimes he does - to me - cross the line from inculturation into syncretism. He doesn’t think so in his mind, but many of his followers were of that mentality and were usually Westerners hiding out in India doing Hindu things.
 
SyroMalankara said:
It’s an uneasy balance. It seems overboard to a Latin but he was a Latin transferred to the Malankara Syriac Church. As a Malankara, the saffron robes and indianisms don’t bother me so much, but sometimes he does - to me - cross the line from inculturation into syncretism. He doesn’t think so in his mind, but many of his followers were of that mentality and were usually Westerners hiding out in India doing Hindu things.
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Indeed, left over hippies from the '60s who were looking for a new ‘high’ to go on a ‘trip’ have promoted this. Based on my time in Berkeley, It would not be a wild thing to say it may serve as their headquarters. 🙂

The monk is about himself not Jesus and considers that the Catholic faith can be used as a springboard to a higher spiritual - experience and an encounter with God (whatever you imagine). He mentions the sacraments, scripture etc… on a list of useful tools to this end. He pretends to have Aquinas as agreement with his approach since God is everywhere etc… Aquinas must have rolled in his grave. 😃

The Catholic Church is not a means to an end. In the Church we meet Christ Himself.

SyroMalankara, can you provide a little update on what is going on with this ‘sect’ or whatever. Have those ‘ashram’ been closed?
 
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